KENT, OHIO – Scootie Randall had a career day in his return to the Temple lineup after missing all of the 2011-12 season to a knee injury. The senior swingman exploded for a career-high 31 points to lift the Owls to an 80-66 win over host Kent State Tuesday afternoon in the team’s season opener which was part of the ESPN Tip-Off Marathon.
Sophomore forward Anthony Lee also had a huge game, scoring a career-best 16 points on six-of-eight shooting while also tying for game honors in rebounds with eight.
Randall, who also had a career-high four steals, tallied 17 of his points in the first half, making seven of his first 10 shots, to propel Temple to a 40-32 halftime lead. He scored seven straight points in a 9-0 TU run that gave the Owls an early 12-4 advantage. He followed that six minutes later with consecutive threes to push the margin to double-digits, 23-11, with 9:14 left in the frame.
The lead would increase to 15 (30-15) on a trey by graduate guard T.J. DiLeo (9 points) on one of six assists by senior guard Khalif Wyatt. Unfortunately, Wyatt suffered a mild hamstring strain on the play that would limit his time the rest of the contest.
The Goiden Flash cut the Owls lead to eight before intermission, and stormed out of the locker room on a 14-6 run to tie the contest at 46 four minutes into the second stanza. Randall again came up big, draining two huge treys to push the margin back to six. After a three-point play by KSU forward Chris Evans (17 pts), Lee answered with five straight points, including a slam to make it 56-49.
A few minutes later graduate forward Jake O’Brien (6 points) made his presence known in his first action as an Owl with a trey to extend the margin back to 10 (61-51).
A three-point play by Randall and a DiLeo basket off a missed free throw extended the margin to 66-51. Kent State was unable to cut the deficit below double-figures the rest of the way.
Dalton Pepper scored four points and grabbed four rebounds in 23 minutes in his Temple debut while freshmenQuenton DeCosey (2 pts) and Devontae Watson (1 block) saw their first action in the final minute.
Kris Brewer scored 19 points to lead KSU, which falls to 1-1.
Temple shot 52.9 percent from the field while limiting the hosts to 37.3 percent from the floor.
The Owls return to Philadelphia to host the Rice Owls in their season opener on Saturday (8:00 p.m./OwlAccess/1210 AM WPHT). It is part of a doubleheader with the Temple women’s team who hosts Northeastern at 5:00 p.m.
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